Well, I was able to kick my 2000 Dodge Dakota up to 115, straight highway. The problem is that you may never be able to max the speedomete, unless you are going downhill maybe, due to the fact that they have govenors on them. I may not ever use it, but I do like the fact that the speedometer does say that it can go that fast, in theory. Now if it can't, then really there is no point. Tires however, you pay the extra price for them to say that they can go that fast.

As for snow tires, oh yeah. You may not see them that much in TX, obvious reasons, but come on up here, they are all over the place. They even have snow tires now for 20" rims, though you pay dearly for them.

I'm hoping for a better price on the R/T. They are saying under 6s 0-60 times and low 20s for the SE so I'm hoping that the R/T stays around $25k. As for the manual helping, that usually only cuts about one to two thousand. Helps, but not a huge difference. Definitely more that can be put towards the down payment at least.